Viruses are everywhere! And although we’d like to think that the Internet is a safe place to spend our time (cough), we all know that there are risks around every corner. Email, social media, malicious websites that have worked their way into search engine results, and ad pop-ups all can pose a threat. Although there are precautions you can take to limit the risk of infecting your computer, sometimes you simply have bad luck and get infected anyway. But thankfully, you can do it for completely free, although removing malware can be a painful process. And because of that, I’ve laid out all the steps of exactly how to do it.

How To Detect The Symptoms That You’re Infected

Why do you need to know how to detect symptoms – that’s what you have an antivirus program for, right? Well, that’s true – they help for sure. There have been occasions where mine has caught something and I’ve been able to get rid of it before it has been able to cause any harm. However, if an antivirus program isn’t updated with the latest definitions, it might not catch everything. Plus, it’s always better to know what to look for, rather than depending on what a program says.

1. Homepage And Search Engine Hijacking

Ever wonder why your homepage, now redirects to some weird website? Or what about your default search engine now being some other search engine that you’ve never heard of or recognize? These are tell-tale signs of malicious activity on your computer.

2. You’re Redirected To A Different Site Without Warning

Similar to the previous one, another problem you might run into is being taken to another website, likely malicious, when you typed in or clicked something completely different that you know hasn’t taken you there before.

3. Pop-ups

Ah, yes. The notorious pop-ups — we all know what they are.

4. Crashes

This isn’t always related to a malware infection, but if this is happening along with some of the others mentioned here, you’ve most likely got something.

I hate to be the barer of bad news, but if your browser(s) continue(s) telling you that pages can’t be loaded, yet your Internet connection is fine, I’d bet that there’s something fishy going on.

The Steps To Take If You Are Infected

There is a level of panic and worry that can overwhelm you whenever you realize that your computer has been infected – you feel vulnerable and open. However, it’s not over for your computer and all of your files that it contains. There are ten things you need to do to obliterate that virus, trojan, worm, or whatever else may be infecting your computer and restore it to the state that it was prior to the infection.

1. Back Up Your Personal Files

Hopefully you have already been backing up your files. But even so, I recommend that you copy your personal files elsewhere just to be safe. Secondly, you don’t want to back up everything on your computer, as there’s a risk that you could save some infected files along with it.

2. Disconnect From The Internet

A virus will try to call home via your Internet connection. Disconnecting from the Internet should be one of the first things you do in order to battle any form of malware. If you’re on a desktop, simply unplugging the Ethernet cable is the most certain way. If you are on a laptop, you can disconnect by unplugging the Ethernet cable, or if you’re wirelessly connected, disabling the WiFi by a physical button on your keyboard or in the Taskbar.

3. Boot In Safe Mode Or With A Live Antivirus Rescue Disk

By booting in Safe ModeHow To Start In Windows Safe Mode & Its UsesHow To Start In Windows Safe Mode & Its UsesThe Windows operating system is a complex structure that hosts a lot of processes. As you add and remove hardware and software, problems or conflicts can occur, and in some cases it can become very...Read More, you’re able to prevent any non-core components from running, allowing you to isolate problems easier. To do this, restart your computer, and press and hold the F8 key while your computer starts up. The first option, “Safe Mode”, should be already selected, but if not, you can navigate to it with your arrow keys. Then press Enter. Once you’re in Safe Mode, you can continue the malware-removal process.

4. Get Another Computer With Internet Access

You will more than likely need the aid of another reliable computer connected to the Web in order to resolve your malware problems. This is because you will need to research the problems and symptoms of the specific infection, as well as download various programs to remove the infection. If you don’t have another computer, you might talk to a good friend or family member and explain your situation. Of course, if you are going to school at a college or university, or if you have access to a computer lab at a library, you might be able to use a public computer to do this as well.

When you download any executable programs on the clean computer, you will of course need a way to transport them to the infect computer. What I find best is a flash drive with no other valuable files on it. You might also use an SD card or portable hard drive.

5. Try To Identify The Actual Malware And Search For Fixes

Often times when malware infects your computer, it isn’t just some generic virus, but a specific kind that needs to be removed with a certain procedure. There are articles and forums all over the Web that address all kinds of malware infections. Start with a basic search based on the little information you know about the infection. For instance, if it’s in the form of a fake antivirus program, what is its name? Once you have somewhere to start, you can keep searching and gathering more information about what to do. Ideally, you’ll find instructions to walk you through the entire process from start to finish.

In case you are completely lost at this point, you can also ask MakeUseOf Answers and we will point you in the right direction.

Again, you will have to download these on the clean computer connected to the Internet and transfer their executable files to the infected computer. Programs like Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware often need Internet access to get the latest definitions, so I often use it to make one last swipe once I’m able to connect to the Internet once more and download the updates. I then return to Safe Mode to run the scans.

NOTE: You should know that although you can use multiple malware removal programs, you can’t use multiple antivirus programs, as they can conflict.

Click System protection in the left panel, which may then prompt you for an administrator password or confirmation. Under the System Protection tab click Configure, then click Delete and OK.

If you’re using Windows 8 without a Start Menu tool, navigate your mouse cursor to the lower right-hand corner to display the Charms bar. Click Search (magnifying glass), type “recovery” and click Settings. You should then see a result that says Recovery, for me it was the second result down in the right panel.

Once you click it, you’ll be taken to a window with Recovery tools, where you will click the link that says Configure System Restore. Then follow the previous instructions.

Homepage Is Still DifferentIf your homepage, like your search engine, was changed, you can go into your browser settings and change what this is too.

Programs And Files Won’t OpenSelect Real Security has another great guide on how to fix this as well and uses four different methods: a Registry file, an INF file that fixes executable file association, CleanAutoRun by Kaspersky, and Creating a new user account.

Windows Update And Firewall Won’t WorkIf Windows Update and/or your Firewall aren’t working properly, you might try a tool called Windows Repair by Tweaking.com. It can do a lot, so when you use it, uncheck all of the options except for the following five:

Repair WMI

Repair Windows Updates

Repair Windows Firewall

Reset Registry Permissions

Reset File Permissions

Windows Repair comes in both portable and non-portable versions.

Computer Is Still SlowIf your computer is still slow, there are several things you can do.

Removing more temporary files

Fix Windows system files by typing sfc /scannow in the Run Window (Start key + R) and the restart the computer

Ensure you have onlyone antivirus program installed and running on your computer

I have created a new malware scanner that I want you guys to check out! It's *only a scanner * and not a removal tool YET, but I am working on it as my new project. It will faithfully scan for and detect the latest malwares! I am also working on a new interface for it, although it is good enough, it's way too basic, I will add a much better gui in the next release!

Give this scanner a shot, and the more downloads we get the more we will develop it into a complete Anti-Malware Package!

Thanks for trying, and don't forget to comment here, I will have a new youtube account when the next version is released!

Any Linux LiveCD or LiveUSB can be an extremely useful tool, especially for rescuing data and files from an already-infected and/or 'locked-down' Windows machine. They can't, of course, be infected by any of the malware already present, simply because it cannot run on them...

But I'm teaching my grandmother to suck eggs; doubtless many of you are already aware of this. In my opinion, the only guaranteed way to restore an infected machine is to remove the data from it (which is the important stuff, after all).....and then to re-install. I'm lucky in this respect, running 'Puppy' Linux as I do; restoring from backed up system files and save files, I can completely re-build and have a system up-and-running in less than an hour.

Gordon's use of both a User and Admin logon accounts is excellent, but some users just feel that there is something "better" about the Admin account and are tempted to use it as their "daily driver" for routine computing.

To discourage this, I always set up the desktop with a high-contrast black-and-white theme. Few mortals can endure this for more than a few moments, and generally, the folks who call on me for assistance don't know how to change the theme to something more palatable.

After discovering malware is usually so late, that you are not really aware of the extent of the damage. So it helps to have updated REAL-TIME malware watchers. Paid or free virus protection is the most common, but will not work on the very latest versions of malware. Generally the various brandnames leapfrog over each other in the effectiveness ratings, but the losers in the race are consistently the loser brandnames.

Less known freeware protectors that I use include Winpatrol & Process Lasso. But the best protection is to MULTI-BOOT my computers. Any Ubuntu-based operating system is compatible with Windows 7 & 8. All my data are on Windows NTFS partitions. This can be easily read-write friendly between Linux and Windows.

Unknown to most Windows users: the 'rescue-disks' for Windows are using Linux. Most Linux installations will also allow experts to rescue a damaged Windows computer.

I lost count of how many time I have had to fix a relatives PC that was broken due to viruses or malware of some sort. It can take hours of work, and even then there is no guarantee that it's been cleaned up, or the OS is not corrupted in some way. Sometimes the quickest way is to just rebuild the PC. The best thing I ever did was to lock down everyone's PC, and giving them two logons. A User logon, and an Admin logon. The kids get no Admin logon ;-). The User logon is for day to day stuff, and the Admin one is used only for installing new software or making system changes. This makes web browsing etc MUCH safer because software vulnerabilities can't be so easily exploited or crapware installed from web sites, including dodgy back ground scripts.

Good article, Aaron. Just a couple of points based on my experience though:

#3: Trying Safe Mode is becoming more of a futile option, just go for the rescue disc instead as it is more effective against the most current malware that is getting better at digging into and infecting core system files (thus are active in Safe Mode anyway). My current tool of choice is the Trinity Rescue Kit since I can use that one tool to scan with multiple products. Many will also need the Internet connection to update themselves (or install in the case of TRK) before the scan.

#4: If you already have the necessary tools installed or they have been downloaded and bootable media already created, another machine is not necessary. I have these kind of tools ready to go at a moment's notice for those times when I get an emergency call from a neighbor or family member. I normally leave copies with them when I leave as well so I don't need to dig up mine the next time they call. Everyone should have a bootable rescue disc or flash drive sitting at their computer so it is handy at all times.

#8: Deleting System Restore Points should not be recommended, but REQUIRED since most people don't realize they have been infected until they have a full set of corrupted files sitting in System Restore from all of the scheduled restore points created as well as those created during software installs and updates.

Finally, the last steps should be the creation of a fresh Restore Point after the cleanup has been taken care of and the system has been restored to a stable (if slightly unknown) state and figuring out when a complete nuke and pave can be done on the system in order to restore trust.

Thank you for sharing your insight and adding value to this article! All very great points and helpful. It seems with computers that there is always a better way to do things, and I love learning about them, so thank you again for taking the time to post an in-depth explanation for various things that I overlooked!

Aaron is a Vet Assistant graduate, with his primary interests in wildlife and technology. He enjoys exploring the outdoors and photography. When he's not writing or indulging in technological findings throughout the interwebs, he can be found bombing down the mountainside on his bike. Read more about Aaron on his…